Burdett, Peel, O'Connell and Wellington in the roles of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare, suffocating John Bull with a rope; representing the extinguishing by Wellington and Peel of the constitution of 1688 by Catholic Emancipation. Coloured etching by A. Sharpshooter, 1829.

  • Sharpshooter, A.
Date:
[April 1829]
Reference:
663317i
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view Burdett, Peel, O'Connell and Wellington in the roles of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare, suffocating John Bull with a rope; representing the extinguishing by Wellington and Peel of the constitution of 1688 by Catholic Emancipation. Coloured etching by A. Sharpshooter, 1829.

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Burdett, Peel, O'Connell and Wellington in the roles of the body-snatchers Burke and Hare, suffocating John Bull with a rope; representing the extinguishing by Wellington and Peel of the constitution of 1688 by Catholic Emancipation. Coloured etching by A. Sharpshooter, 1829. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

John Bull lies on the floor being suffocated by four politicians in favour of Catholic Emancipation: Sir Francis Burdett, Robert Peel, Daniel O'Connell and the Duke of Wellington. In the background, behind a dissecting table, stand four anatomists represented by the Catholic kings of Spain (left) and France, the Pope and the devil: the devil whispers in the Pope's ear. Far left, the King (George IV) is gagged by Lady Conyngham, a confidante of the King's reputed to be in favour of Catholic Emancipation. Right, Britannia is gagged with a plaster and is restrained at the elbows; she sits on the British lion which is also muzzled with a plaster. Suffocation with a pitch plaster was reputed to be one of the methods of murder used by bodysnatchers (see the caricature "Present mode of applying a pitch plaister!!" by Dickey Fubs, Wellcome Library catalogue no. 663319i)

Publication/Creation

[London] (24, St James's Street) : G. Humphrey, [April 1829]

Physical description

1 print : etching, with watercolour ; platemark 26 x 39.6 cm

Contributors

Lettering

The constitution of John Bull destroyed by the combined efforts of the Burkites. A Sharpshooter fec.

References note

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. XI, London 1954, no. 15708

Reference

Wellcome Collection 663317i

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